Users of mobile devices are increasingly willing to apply their mobile devices to receive information locally available in their immediate surroundings, while on the other hand many service providers indicate increasing interest, or even need, to make such information available to the users. Examples of such locally available, and typically (predominantly) locally relevant, information includes environmental information concerning the immediate surroundings (e.g. temperature, air humidity, CO2 level, . . . ), other pieces of status information regarding the immediate surroundings (e.g. the estimated number of people in a certain space/area) and commercial information concerning services available in the immediate surroundings.
Short-range wireless techniques or protocols provide a suitable platform for broadcasting such information to the mobile devices residing in or visiting a certain geographical area or space. Any outdoor area or indoor area/space typically occupied by a high number of people is likely to provide an environment that is suitable for using such techniques/protocols for delivery of information to the users of mobile devices. Examples of such areas/spaces include shopping centers or shopping malls, theme parks, museums, airports, railway stations, public buildings, busy pedestrian streets or areas. On the other hand, certain types of locally relevant information may also be useful in more private environments such as private homes.
However, with the increasing amount of information being made wirelessly available for the users of the mobile devices, the risk of the potentially useful information getting lost in the vast amount of information available out there is also increasing. Moreover, there is also a significant risk of some users refusing to receive any information due to overflow of information, most of which is likely to be irrelevant for a given individual user.